Gooseneck trailer pullers, heck RVers too

[MMiller]

While pulling my gooseneck down concrete roads that have bad expansion joints, I have a less then pleasurable ride. I run the kelderman air ride on the rear of my first gen, the ride is really quite good in respect to handling the bumps. Mine is pretty bad about yanking the truck forward and back. Also my goosneck's neck(??) is pretty tall, and I believe that the neck is flexing, making this fore and aft even worse. When the neck of the trailer is extended downward more for my buddy's 2 wd ford, it gets worse. I was wondering if anybody here has one of these yet on thier gooseneck or RV.



http://www.keldermanairride.com/productdetails.php?id=LEAFSPRING



The trailer pulls real nice, and handles loads well, but for long trips to go pulling, and such the ride is brutal in some areas. I am quite sure that the truck suspension is in good shape, and there is not much more to do to it other then maybe adding some ladder bars to help with axel wrap. Does anybody else have any ideas on how to take a little of the yank out? Yes I tow heavy(upwards of 28,000#) and no I don't want this to start into, you're overloaded, buy a bigger truck. I have plenty of truck, just need to smooth out the edges a little more. Next time I have it loaded I will axel it out to see what I have, but I am confident that I am not overloading the trailer.



Michael

 

[ndurbin]

Is the hitch adjustable on your trailer? If so move it up or down until you find the best spot. I had to adjust my stock trailer's hitch down to get it to pull smoothly over bumps. If not you may want to look into replacing it with a adjustable one.



Nathan

 

[MMiller]

Yes, mine is adjustable. I have it set so the trailer is just a little higher on the nose then the tail, but the trailer is almost level. If I go any lower, then I have box side clearance issues. Any higher and the tail of the trailer will drag more. When I extend the hitch down to hook to my buddy's 2wd ford(to keep the trailer level) this yanking problem gets worse. We have to drop the hitch down ward almost 6" to get the trailer level behind his truck. I believe the verticle part of the trailer is flexing right above the ball.



I know the semi truck drivers always said to get the air ride trailer first, as it takes a lot of yanking out of the tractor. I was just wondering if anybody else has delt with this and won.



Michael

 

[SRadke]

I would guess the diffrence between your truck and your buddies is the suspension more than the trailer neck height. There is also a wheelbase factor that plays a role. Smoothing out the trailer would be a big help but there is also an air ride pin box for fivers that I've heard of, you might look into that.



-Scott

 

[GWBourne]

is your load balanced right? try moving things around a bit. i moved my blazer back a bit on my trailer and got the same effect. what kind of trailer do you have? tandem singles, duals or tripple axle? my tripple axle is great, but like i said, i moved the blazer back a bit and upset the ride a LOT. only about 4 inches caused the ride to go from great to crap...

grant

 

[MMiller]

Its a 32' dual tandem gooseneck flatbed. I have experemented in the past with moving the load around, and have been putting the single truck in the same place all the time lately. I suppose its time to start moving it around again. Another thing I had not thought about is the 1000# of suitcase weights I haul on the deck over the tandems. Here's the pics of my trailer. I just hauled one fullsize truck on the last trip and the yanking was pretty bad on the rough sections of road.



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Michael

 

[RustyJC]

This won't help the gooseneck folks, but take a look at this 5th wheel pin box from MorRyde that's designed to greatly reduce fore-and-aft "chucking".



Rusty

 

[MMiller]

At a farm show I saw a gooseck hitch insert that slid into the trailer, that had about 6" of fore and aft movement, but it was all mechanical and linkages, nothing but the weight of the trailer holding it from rocking. I did not know if the trailer would just keep rocking back and forth on the linkages. It was the same thought as the rubber pin box, but not really anything to keep it centered. I was also concerened with it moving around while jocking the trailer around fields, and in and out of driveways.



Michael

 

[LesStallings]

I'm with GWBorne. I found a world of difference in the quality of the ride based on how I loaded the trailer and the height of the front of the trailer. When I first got the gooseneck trailer, the front was too high and the tires on the forward axle would actually slap the concrete joints, or that is what it sounded like. I progressively lowered the front of the trailer until it was just barely higher than the rear. And I do mean just barely. I've been told that a completely "neutral" trailer will try to steer the truck.



I also try to obtain the correct front bias on loading the trailer. This usually means that my pin weight is at or above 2,000 pounds. You might want to determine the pin weight of your trailer when loaded.



I don't tow as heavy as you do (15-16,000 pounds is my norm) so I think any balance problem is most likely magnified on your rig. Good luck. A sweet towing rig is just that, sweet!

 

[JL penner]

I've heard nothing but good about these things



Air Ride

 

[MMiller]

I have experianced the phenomenon (sp?) of not enough pin wieght one time. I loaded a Cat426 Backhoe on my trailer and had it about 1 foot further back then the first time I loaded it, looking for a better ride. That one foot to the rear made the truck just want to bounce. It never got off the ground, or out of control, but I know what that feels like. I loosened the chains and pulled it forward one foot, and then no more bouncing.



I am pretty sure I had enough pin weight, it did not act light on the front. I will load the truck differntly next time though. I will try it further forward.



I see that still noone has seen the kelderman air ride on a trailer yet. Thanks for the link on the air ride hitch.



Michael

 

[I-6DZL]

You're pretty sure the trailer isn't overloaded, but for your sake and ours, load the trucks back on and get to the scales. The the trailer is in fact overloaded then i would highly suggest attach the back of the trailer to something solid and start pulling forward while watching the gooses neck!



My next guess if all of your weights are how they should be, LADDER BARS.



Another thing, tire pressure. Try something new each time you're loaded, and write it down. Load, pressure in each tire of the trailer, and truck, and air bags.



Take a couple of good pictures of the front of the trailer so we can check it out.



Youre goose neck ball isn't loose is it ? "it looks tight" just don't cut it, check it out.



Good Luck

Curtis

 

[AfterBurner]

does anybody run that air ride hitch? It's quite intriguing, i wonder how well/if it works.

 

[MMiller]

Oh boy, here goes. The load pictured with the two trucks is indeed heavy, that load was when we moved. Normally there is just two trucks not full of stuff. With two trucks I have been all over Iowa, and parts of Minnesota, Illinios, and Wisconsin in the last 5 years. I am by no means a rookie with this setup. I know its hard to read sometimes in a persons post. Like I said in an earlier post, the next time its loaded, I will scale axel it, and heck I'll post it here.



I always run with 80 psi in all the trailer tires. Always. Every stop all the tires and bearings get touched, checking for heat, truck tires too. The rear truck tires always get 50 psi when hooked to the trailer. Always. Lately I have been running no air in the air lift bags, and pumping the kelderman air ride up until it hits the limit straps, and a little more. This so far has given me the best ride over bumps, and handling the load. Well within the limits of the design of the kelderman and the rear suspension.



The ball in the bed is always tight. Always. It is an old school setup installed by a old welder man. The plate is thick and welded to the frame. The nut is welded to the bottom of the plate. The ball has a long bar welded to it. When installing the ball I screw it in by hand until it is snug against the plate, then I whack the bar with sledge hammer another 1/4 turn, just like the old man advised. Before anybody jumps all over this setup, this old welder man has been installing them this way in pickups for over 30 years. His hitches have been through wrecks, over turns, twisted, totaled trailers and trucks, and never has had one fail. 'Nuff said for me.



Yes, I haul pretty heavy, and much heavier the most guys here, but nothing that makes me feel unsafe, or that should make anybody else feel unsafe. I do not do it for business, or every day. If that was the case then I would upgrade. But for weekend use a couple times a month I have no need for a Freightliner, IH, F550 etc. I barely put enough miles on the 93 anymore to keep it limbered up. The brakes are always functional, I replace tires before they are worn out, tire pressure is always were it needs to be.



Now, I agree with the ladder bars. It is something I have wanted to do for a while, but have not gotten to it. This truck has the typical 6" factory block between the springs and the axel. If I can get it to quit jerking so hard on expansion joints, then I will be very happy again. I will get a pic of the trailer hitch.



Michael

 

[I-6DZL]

Good 'nuff for me, i guess you need to wait until you get ladder bars on to hopefully help control everything.



Curtis

 

[bmoeller]

At a farm show I saw a gooseck hitch insert that slid into the trailer, that had about 6" of fore and aft movement

Michael, any chance you remember the manufacters name on that hitch coupler?



What is your trailer gross loaded as normal?



There is this



And this.

 

[NIsaacs]

Michael, take a good look at where the main goose neck frame attaches to the main frame of the trailer. Some times they are kinda lame. I doubt the rest of the neck or hitch is giving. I would say that the main frame is flexing.



I pulled a trailer like yours for years, only shorter. When I would haul a short compact load, like a crawler tractor (18,000 lbs) loaded between the trailer axles and the neck I would get a nasty ride. However if I hauled a rubber tired skidder (same weight), rear axle dead center over the center of the trailer axles and dozer up against the neck with the front axle about three feet behind the dozer, I would get a perfect ride. I always figured it was frame flex. I also think if you would lock your equalizer bar and make the axles independant of each other it would also help.





"NICK"

 

[MMiller]

I believe the main frame and where the neck comes up from the main frame is fine. Were I think flex is coming from is the pipe up off the ball. I'll measure it, but I'll bet there is 18" from the bed floor to the bottom of the pipe welded to the trailer neck. I *think* the tube that the coupler is welded to, that slides in the pipe on the neck is what is flexing slightly. The reason I believe this is when hooked to my buddy's lower 2wd truck we had to drop the tube an additional 6-8" and the "yanking" was worse.



Thanks guys for talking with me out loud on this. Thanks for the links Bryan, I'll look into them some more. The load that was pretty jerky was just one 1984 chevy truck and the weights I haul around all summer. Nothing serous. Oh yeah, I also had a small plastic play house strapped up against the neck, and a pedal tractor in the bed of the truck. I'm sure that was my problem :-laf :-laf



Michael

 

[Mundgyver]

Here is another air ride system that you might look into also.



http://www.easyriderhitch.com/

 

[bmoeller]

You're welcome. Going back to the second link, it looks like it may be the style you were referring to.



I'll have to get you a pic of what my boss' dad uses. It was made by the guy who use to work for him, many years ago. Works GREAT! Can't tell a trailer is back there, with exception to the weight. Empty or loaded.



It is made with a steel plate, 2 leaf spring packs from a VW Beetle, with the ball welded in the middle), angle iron and the ball. It has been through one wreck that happened before I moved here, that I'm aware of. Probably has 1- 1. 5 million miles on it. Maybe more.



This gives you the general idea. [)o(]



)( = springs



o = the gooseneck ball



[ and ] = part of the frame that they sit against.



****** Here is a pic-



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